Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

1Th 5:16-18, “16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

It’s amazing to see how God keeps arranging these little intersections of texts and teachers on Wednesday night.

Tonight we are going to be looking at a tiny text, very short and sweet.

Just 1 Thessalonians 5:16, which says “Rejoice always.”

Most of you probably remember my trials in the hospital this past summer, dealing with abdominal pains and a wayward appendix.

I felt a lot of things back then, many of which I never want to feel again—but joy was not one of them!

Not at first, anyways.

At first, my spiritual thoughts were mostly filled with little prayers for deliverance, “Lord, please, just make it go away!” Sins of the flesh took their turns to tempt me: anxiety, anger, pride, selfishness.

I was caught off-guard.

I’d never waited in bed for four days just to have a bowel movement.

That was new.

The whole experience was new, and it tested my relationship with the Lord.

Looking back on it, I am thankful that the Lord used those trials to stir up my prayer life as I entered into a busy season with seminary.

He knew I needed to recalibrate, to reconsider my joy in Him even when I was going through hard times.

Remember that our text for this evening is 1 Thessalonians 5:16, which commands us to “rejoice always.”

Tonight I plan to search Scripture with you, and my goal is to recalibrate your perspective on joy.

I’ll begin with a brief introduction to the nature of joy, but then we’ll consider how, when, and why you, as a believer, must rejoice.

Pray with me as we begin.

The Nature of Joy

As we warm up for a jog through Scripture, I want you to think about joy.

At first glance, it’s such a simple concept.

We know joy when we see it, and we love to be around joyful people.

We enjoy and are overjoyed by things all the time.

But what exactly is biblical joy, and what does it mean to rejoice?

To Rejoice is to Express Joy

Well, rejoicing is pretty easy.

It is a verb, which requires action.

So we might say that to rejoice is to express joy, in some form or fashion.

To rejoice is to express joy.

Joy, though, is a little harder to define because it is so flexible.

For complex terms like this, it’s helpful to start with a simple definition and clarify with contrasts.

So here’s mine.

I would argue that joy is a grateful response to the grace of God.

Joy is a grateful response to the grace of God.

And rejoicing determines the form of that response.

You have to decide how you are going to put the noun into action.

Joy is Different from Happiness

Let’s compare joy to happiness first.

The simple difference between the two is that happiness is a reaction to ordinary circumstances, while joy is a reaction to spiritual realities.

Circumstances come and go, but joy is anchored by eternal truth.

Romans 12:12 says that we are to rejoice “in hope,” and Romans 5:5 says that “hope does not put to shame.”

Circumstances will fail us, but we must cling to what God has revealed about Himself, especially through His actions on behalf of His people.

These actions are the heart of grace and the source of joy, our grateful response.

Joy is Different from Peace

But joy is also different from peace, even though they are side by side in the fruits of the Spirit, and even though peace often leads to joy.

Be careful that you do not equate the two.

The difference is that peace is a reaction to the absence of evil, while joy is a reaction to the presence of good.

They are similar but different.

Peace reassures us, while joy compels us.

Many times in Scripture we are described as simply being “at peace” with someone, while we are said to return, serve, offer, bring, receive, and see “with joy.”

These texts indicate that joy is associated with action.

Faith without works is dead, and joy without expression just shrivels up.

Joy is Hampered by Sin and Worldliness

Lastly, your joy is hampered by your sin and worldliness.

John James, a puritan writer, says in his treatise Spiritual Joy that while “immorality” is the greatest of all killjoys, “sins of omission and defect… [also] prevent or diminish our joy.”

He means that neglect of spiritual disciplines and indulgence in worldly entertainment dull the sparkle of your joy.

He says, “The religion of some people is just enough to make them miserable.

It spoils them for the world, without fitting them for the church.”

So, you have been warned!

You must cultivate joy.

You must take action to express gratitude for the grace of God in your life.

In other words, you must “rejoice.”

How You Must Rejoice

1 Th 5:16a, rejoice

I want to consider several options for how you can express joy in order to give God glory and make a proper return to Him for His grace in your life.

Some of these options are commanded, and others are not, but the point is that you must rejoice.

Consider the ten lepers that Jesus healed in Luke 17, where only one of the lepers returned to Him.

Was the “joy” of the other nine spiritual in any sense at all? No, it was not!

They neglected to return and rejoice with the One who had healed them.

Their joy was meaningless and lifeless because it lacked proper expression.

Rejoice by Giving Thanks in Prayer

Look down at 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, where we learn proper expression:

1Th 5:16-18, “16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

In Greek, these three commands are grammatically structured in parallel.

It says always rejoice, unceasingly pray, in everything appreciate.

Then they are tied together by the common explanation: they are God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Why is this important?

Let me reorganize it for clarity.

Taken together, Paul is saying that you should always, unceasingly, and in everything be rejoicing by giving thanks in prayer.

This means the highest or best expression of joy is giving thanks in prayer.

It means using your own words to express to God your gratitude for what He has done.

It means being like the one leper who returned to praise Jesus in person.

And we don’t have time to look at it, but you can find the same trio of joy, prayer, and thanksgiving in 1 Thessalonians 3:9 as well, just a couple chapters earlier.

Rejoice by Making Melody in Song

In addition to giving thanks in prayer, you can also rejoice by making melody in song.

Both Ephesians 5:19-21 and Colossians 3:16-17 describe psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as legitimate expressions of gratefulness to God.

These things are to be done “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” just like we must rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice by Sharing Peace in Greeting

Thirdly, you can rejoice by sharing peace in greetings.

Remember that I said peace often leads to joy.

Now you, as believers, can express your peaceful unity in the Lord by greeting and receiving one another with joy.

This should be common.

In the New Testament, the word often translated “Greetings!” is the same word we are studying tonight, “Rejoice!”

They would greet one another by saying, “Rejoice!”

This is how Jesus greeted the disciples in Matthew 28:9 after He rose from the dead; Zaccheus received Jesus with joy in Luke 19:6, and Paul instructed the Philippians to receive men like Epaphroditus “in the Lord with all joy” in chapter two, verse 29.

Rejoice by Smiling, Clapping, Laughing, Shouting, Leaping, and Dancing

Lastly, we can also recognize smiling, clapping, laughing, shouting, leaping, and dancing as various forms of rejoicing which are stated, implied, or commanded in relevant passages like Pr 15:13, Ps 47:1; 126:2; 150:4; and Lk 6:23.

I think we can safely include smiling with the biblical exhortation to greet one another.

For the rest, though, I want to consider how Ecclesiastes 3:4 says that there is an appropriate time to rejoice, and how it implies a need for discernment.